Five Reasons why you should volunteer with CWB in 2019

At Cricket Without Boundaries we love volunteers. We simply wouldn’t exist without volunteers going above and beyond. We are a growing family and we’ve achieved a huge amount in the last six months. With your help, we can achieve more. Here’s why you should join our family.

1. Use your skills (even the ones you never knew you had)

A CWB trip is at it’s best with a diverse group of people with a mix skills. Whether you can get a crowd to hang on your every last word, the next David Bailey or simply a great listener, there’s a role for you. And even if you don’t think you have ‘mad skillz’ you will soon develop some you never thought you would. A CWB trip is all about shared experiences and shared learning. If you have learnt and helped others learn, we have done our job.

2. Be a part of an ever-increasing movement

It’s not just CWB who are growing. Sport for development is an ever increasing movement showing sport’s social value. That could be rehabilitating prisoners, enabling boys and girls to play on the same field or bringing disparate people together. As Nelson Mandela said ‘Sport has the power to change the world”. You can play your part in this movement and be on the coal face of sport and development. How many people can say that? Check out how sport and development is growing by going to the ConnectSport website or listening to the GoodSports Podcast.

3. Realise the power of the tennis ball

We often take play for granted. In some of the communities we work in, it’s everything. A simple tennis ball has incredible power, used in the right way. Not only will it bring you and your new found friends joy, you can use it to start a conversation about issues in the community. No, you won’t save the world with a tennis ball, but it can unlock the power of peer led talking on important social issues. That is a pretty powerful tool.

4. Lose yourself in a foreign field

The modern world is a blur of notifications, cookies and hotspots. Escape your emails, turn off twitter and get out of wifi range to experience the thrill of 500 children playing cricket. Don’t worry, you will be able to get your online fix at the hotels but give up online scrolling in the day for two weeks and you won’t regret it. Smiles are much better than likes.

5. Be a big kid

The work we do in partnership with our partners in country and the truly heroic ambassadors is incredibly important. We can bring testing centres to hundreds of children, we can make talking about condoms cool and we can showcase our ambassadors as peers who have succeeded through good decision making. It won’t seem natural to start but you soon will be jumping around like you just don’t care. Try it, it’s super-fun.